


Beating the Dead Swan

by gaymemeaesthetic



Series: Beating The Dead Swan [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ballet, Angst, Blood and Injury, Dancing, Heavy Angst, M/M, Murder, Spencer Reid Angst, he/they spencer, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29163186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaymemeaesthetic/pseuds/gaymemeaesthetic
Summary: Diana signs Spencer up for dance class at the local community center when he is four years old. He ends up doing it all through high school and college.What happens when he finds his best friend dead in her apartment?
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Series: Beating The Dead Swan [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173032
Comments: 11
Kudos: 49





	1. leave her alone

**Author's Note:**

> tags and characters will change as the story goes on :) im very excited to write this and i hope you are excited to read it!

All throughout Diana’s pregnancy, she thought she was having a girl. She tried every old wives’ tale from every culture, and all signs pointed to a girl. She spent her days in the nursery, daydreaming and writing about the life she imagined for her little princess. So it wasn’t her fault that Spencer had been signed up for ballet lessons since he was four, right?

Missing girl. 

The first time Spencer was dropped off, the first thing he noticed was the other children in the class. He was the youngest there, and the only boy. The second thing he noticed was the old architecture of the community center. There were unidentifiable stains on the carpet and the paint was peeling from the walls. It smelled of both old books and steamed cabbage, an oddly comforting scent to him. The newest thing in the building was the floor of the dance studio, polished and painted to perfection. A girl, about a year older than Spencer walked up to him. “Hi, I’m Riley.” Her eyes were kind and her smile was warm. She seemed to come from a group of girls, which were laughing in the corner. They were all older than him by some degree and all were the popular type. It was no wonder the two would grow apart, is it?

Missing girl.

When his mother picked him up that day she apologized profusely. She figured she had embarrassed him by making him take a ballet class, that he was probably the only boy. He was, but it didn’t bother him. His mom wasn’t a fan of them, but in one of Aesop’s fables, The Gnat and the Bull, Aesop pushes the message that any individual is probably not that important, so Spencer felt the same way about his gender. If his doesn’t matter, why would it in relation to anyone else's? He told her he didn't mind, and she asked if he wanted to keep going. He said yes.

Missing girl.

Spencer went to ballet every Saturday, even after his father left. Their mom couldn’t drive, but he lived walking distance from the community center. Despite his lack of experience with physical activity, he wasn’t the worst in the dance studio. He easily clicked with the rhythm of the music and understood each of the movements fairly well for a four year old. He was a little shaky and uncoordinated, but his teacher, Mrs. Woodsomb, promised that he would grow out of that.

Missing girl.

Spencer remembered everything about the last day he talked to Riley. He stayed up especially late that night reading books. Diana had gone to the library a couple of days before and picked up a couple of new books for them to begin reading, but they hadn’t begun reading a single page from any of them. He was transferring to highschool, and being a junior as a ten year old was a lot harder than it seemed. They woke up wrapped in his mother’s blanket. He rubbed his eyes and stumbled out of his bedroom towards Diana’s. She was still asleep. They looked at the time displayed on the microwave. It read 10:43. He was late to ballet. They quickly packed their bag, changed his clothes, and ran out the door. That wasn’t a good day for Spencer. They kept falling over while they were practicing pirouettes, his legs kept shaking, and he couldn’t stay on his feet for long. Unfortunately, when Mrs. Woodsomb picked them out to demonstrate a jete, instead of landing on his feet he tumbled on his feet, making all of the girls laugh, except Riley. They began crying and Riley rushed to her feet to help Spencer up. She led him to a vacant changing room. “Are you okay? That wasn’t a particularly bad fall. Why are you crying?” She hadn’t talked to Spencer often, but she figured she could be of help if needed. “No, no it’s fine. I’m fine.” Spencer caught his breath and stopped crying as best he could, letting the last few tears escape. He took a paper towel and dried his eyes. They walked back to the studio. Spencer took a few deep breaths. He had probably just been nervous from being late, or his workload, and probably not the out of place teenager looking over the ballet class.

Missing girl.

The next Saturday Riley didn’t show up to class. “Okay, my beautiful dancers,” Mrs. Woodsomb looked to Riley’s dad who stood in the doorway, seemingly close to tears, “I’m sorry, but our friend Riley will not be joining us today. She uh,” Mrs. Woodsomb turned to the doorway again, now empty, “She moved away. So, let's get started.” She began playing the classical music. Spencer scanned the room, as if making sure Riley was really gone. She was, as well as the teenager he had seen last week.

Missing girl.

Spencer continued with their life as normally they could. He didn’t forget about Riley, but she didn’t cross their mind as much as she did before. It wasn’t until he was twelve and fresh out of high school that he thought of her again. He mentioned that he had no idea what to do for college, and Mrs. Woodsomb was able to connect him with a school of dance in Virginia. They paid to fly him out and while he looked out of the window on the plane he thought about her. Did she continue doing ballet? Would she go to a school of dance just like them?

Missing girl.

To his surprise, Spencer enjoyed the dance academy a lot more than he thought he would. The college offered a lot more classes than just ballet. He wanted to take every class at once, but they settled on ballet for the first year, jazz for the second, then modern, and finally ballet again. He excelled in all of his classes each year, and at the end of his last one a local theatre company came in to watch the class for a couple of weeks. At the end of the weeks they picked out two dancers to join the company. They picked Spencer and a girl in his class, Camille.

Missing girl.

Camille and Spencer grew close over the years. She was just a year older than him when they met, 18, and it turns out they had a lot in common. Great appreciation for literature, from Las Vegas, and they even grew up just three towns apart. Spencer started driving them to the theatre every day. Most of the other dancers preferred working alone, but not them. Camille and Spencer would rather work together every hour of every day than alone. When some of the dancers stopped showing up they didn’t think anything of it. They even joked that they all got abducted by aliens for their dancing needs.

One day Spencer tried to call Camille to complain about how his feet hurt and to ask if she wanted to go with them to get some cream for his sores from the CVS, but she didn’t pick up. It was unnatural for her, but he did happen to call late so he figured she was just asleep and went by himself. The next morning when he arrived at her apartment she didn’t answer the door. They knocked only to find the door cracked open. He walked into the apartment. The sink in the kitchen was filled with dishes, there was an open cabinet, but other than that everything looked the same. They continued on. The bathroom door was open and everything seemed clean. He walked into the bedroom.

“Camille! Camille!”

She was laid out like a star. Spencer pulled his hands away from her arms, watching the blood drip from them.

Dead girl.


	2. Lonely Angels Wrapped in Silk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penelope gives the profiles of Camille and other victims like her to the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> important to note here that this takes place when Criminal Minds starts, in 2005 when Spencer is 24

It started out a simple equivocal death investigation. Seven women had been found in their apartments, dead with their wrists slashed. Unfortunately not an unusual occurrence, Detective Conner thought nothing of it. Upon trying to contact the employers of each victim, Conner found they all worked for the same people, and decided to mark them down for further investigation just in case. When the fourth victim was found in her father’s beach house just outside of Virginia, the case became federal and handed to the FBI.

The case, being low priority, was given to Derek Morgan to monitor the progress of. 

“You’re completely sure there’s nothing about the bodies that connect these victims?”

“Agent Morgan, if there was anything I would tell you. I think it’s time you tell Detective Conner to rule these deaths a suicide.”

“Alright, will do.” Derek hung up with the coroner. Just then his mobile phone rang with the number of the detective displayed on the top of the screen. Derek sighed.

“Agent Morgan.” He answered.

“Agent, there’s another victim-”

“Conner, listen, they arent connected, there is no signature unless you can consider the suicide, I think you oughtta-”

“She was called in by a friend. Not a family member, not an apartment manager, not a coworker, a real friend. Derek, he’s devolving.”

Derek sighed, “Detective, I’ll let you send her body over to the coroner but I doubt there will be anything remarkable.”

There was some mumbling on the other end of the line before Detective Conner gave a response.

“That’s the thing, Agent Morgan, this victim is remarkable. She had piercing holes in her ears just like the others.”

“And how is that remarkable?”

“Her ears weren’t pierced.”

“And you’re sure about that, Detective?”

“Her best friend swears it. Do you think they could be puncture marks?”

“I’m not sure, let me tell Doctor Phyllis.”

Derek set down his mobile phone and dialed the coroner on his office phone.

“Doctor Phyllis?”

“You back again so soon, Agent?”

“Look, we got a new victim, she's got puncture marks on her ears. Not piercings, puncture marks. Can you check the other victims to make sure they’re not puncture marks?”

“Okay, give me a minute.”

Derek heard the sound of doors opening.

“Well, shit, they are puncture marks. On every single ear.”

“Thanks, Doctor Phyllis.”

Derek hung up on the office phone.

“Do I still have you here, Detective?”

“Yep. Were they piercings?”

“Nope. Bring in the girl’s friend and call in the family members of the other victims. We’re gonna need to talk to them.”

Derek hung up the phone and ran up to Hotch’s office.

“Something up, Morgan?” Hotch asked.

“You know that case Detective Conner asked me to look into?”

“The one with the suicides?”

“Yeah, well they might not be suicides. I’m having Conner bring in some people to ask them some questions. You mind if I ask Rossi and Prentiss to help?”

“Of course not, but if we get another case then leave the questioning for Detective Conner, alright?”

“Gotcha, boss.”

Derek gathered Rossi, Prentiss, and Penelope in the break room to discuss the case.

“Babygirl, you want to read out the profiles of our victims?”

“Reluctantly,” Penelope pulled up each of the files onto her laptop. “Danica Wilson, a 45 year old woman, was found by her landlord. She grew up in Victoria, Canada, but when she was 12, her parents got a divorce. Her mother moved her and her three siblings to North Dakota shortly after. All throughout highschool she seemed immensely interested in biology and chemistry. She was really good at it too, she took AP classes and she was a promising student. Unfortunately, her mom didn’t want her to do anything of the sort, and set her up for ballet classes her junior year. To appease her mom she studied the history of dance during college and ended up climbing up from an intern at a dance company all the way to a choreographer. Her love for science was still there the whole way through though, she’s been taking free college courses online for biology for about a year. She was found with her wrists slashed and spread out in a star shape on the middle of her bed. There were no fingerprints anywhere in her home and the slashes appeared to be self inflicted. Her mom died a week before she was found, all of her siblings live in other states, and she didn't have any close friends. She never dated, even though she had perfect brown eyes and blonde hair. According to her siblings she had all of the boys at her school after her. Despite there being no evidence of depression or other mental illness officers deemed her mothers death as a stressor and marked her death a suicide.”

“Then we have Maya Peto, 22 years old, found by her sister.”

“So there’s no age preference?” Rossi asked.

“Precisely,” Penelope continued, “She grew up in Detroit. Her parents raised her in a Christian household and shes been openly gay since she was 18. Her dad died when she was 14, leaving Maya and one sister to be raised by their mother. She did exceptionally well in math, but seemed to have no interest in pursuing it as a career. Instead, she became captain of her dance team in highschool and went to Wirtson’s Dance Academy for college. Her last year there, she was picked by Next Star Theatre Company, the same one as all of the other victims, to be on their ballet team. She was found just like Danica, and would be just like the rest of the victims. Her now ex-girlfriend and her had a kid, his name is Gene, he’s a year old, and Maya had full custody of him because Khloe, the girlfriend, had begun doing drugs about a week after Gene was born. How could lesbians have a child? Khloe was cheating. Maya gained full custody of Gene after a year long legal battle, and she had left him with her sister for a weekend while she baby proofed her house. Unfortunately, when she went to Maya’s apartment to return Gene, she found her dead. It was the anniversary of her father’s death when she was found, so the ever so ignorant officers deemed it another suicide.

“Then we have Annie Carr, 24. A coworker found her. Born here in Virginia, Annie was raised by her dad after her mom died when she was about one. She seemed to have a pretty awesome life. Her dad worked two jobs and she’s never had all that much money, but she was a happy kid. She went to a community college and ended up taking the same internship that Danica Wilson took, but she has stayed in that internship for years, mooching money off of her dad and siblings. Mabel Golden, the coworker that found her, claims that there’s no way Annie could’ve killed herself. She didn’t show any signs of depression or mental illness, though she could be pessimistic at times. Mabel said their boss was threatening to let her go, seeing as she hasn’t improved her work ethic in the last five years. Deemed another suicide.

“The fourth victim was Valentine Orange, 36, found by her father. She grew up in Maryland, started acting and dancing at six, her family was pretty wealthy, and she got accepted into the same dance academy and theatre company as Maya Peto. She also danced on the same ballet team. She told her team leader she was going away for a week to her father’s beach house, and when her father came to get her on the day she was supposed to leave, he found her in the guest bedroom, just like the other victims. The beach house was located in Maryland, and due to Detective Cooper’s hunch, the case got handed to us for an equivocal death investigation.

“Francis Falstaff, our fifth victim, was found by her adoptive mother. She was 22. Both of her parents died in a car crash a month after she was born, so she grew up in a multitude of foster homes. When she was ten her and her sister were adopted by Baron Falstaff and Maggie Falstaff. They seemed to be good parents. They went to all of their school events and paid for both of the girls’ college tuition. Francis was trying to make it into the same theatre company that employed the rest of the victims, specifically to work as a jazz dancer. She seemed to have killed herself, just like the rest of the victims, but her mom insists that she couldn’t have. She had a very promising life ahead of her. When they dissected her room they found an evidence board in the back of her closet. Her sister, Yvette, was stabbed to death a couple years back on the way to a party, and Francis was obsessed with finding the killer. Which is why she didn’t have many friends. When it was all processed, they found that the evidence led to Yvette’s boyfriend at the time. It was assumed that this weighed heavily enough on Francis that she ended up, well you know, on the same day she found out.

“Jane Sweeney, the second to last victim who worked on the Next Star Theatre Company ballet team, was 29. She’s been with the company since she was 20, and unfortunately her private teacher was the one who found her. Her father left when she was young. She liked expressing all of her success, almost narcissistically so. According to some other people on the dance team she was the best dancer and loved flaunting it. She was a kind of queen bee and seemed to value herself more than others most of the time. It just doesn’t make sense for her to kill herself.

“Lillian Bonner was the next victim. She was 54. She taught modern dance at the company. She lived with and was found by her only son, Tyrell, who she had with her husband Ivan. Though they were still legally married, the two were separated. Tyrell, who’s 16, said she was a fantastic mom. SHe always made sure he was fed and had someone to talk to. He told her practically everything about his life and he is having a really difficult time without her. He doesn’t believe that she would do that to herself.

“Our last victim was Camille Price. She was 25. Her best friend, Spencer Reid, who was on the same ballet team, found her. She was the only one who really had people around her. She grew up in Virginia with her parents and two brothers, one older, one younger. She visited them whenever she could. Everyone in her apartment building loved her, she even made dinner for one of the elderly occupants every Friday. Spencer doubts there is anything that would want to make her commit suicide, and to put the icing on the cake, there were puncture marks on her ears that police mistook for piercings. ‘What were they?’ you ask? Injection sites. How do we know this? Spencer swore that there was no way they could be piercings because Camille never wore earrings the entire 8 years he knew her because the Next Star Theatre Company does not allow their dancers to wear piercings or jewelry.”

“Alright, let’s go see if these people got any info for us.” Rossi got out of his seat and headed towards the interview rooms.


	3. bring me my robe with your sweet talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek interviews Spencer and comforts him about the loss of Camille.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter name from dionysus from the buttertones. this chapter goes to matthew gray gubler for his birthday! hbd to him :)

They interviewed the possible suspects in order of victim, JJ and Emily took the first, third, fifth, and seventh ones while Derek and Rossi took the second, fourth, sixth, and finally the eighth one, Spencer.

Danica Wilson’s landlord, Howard Jeffries, was innocent. According to JJ he was extremely paranoid during the whole interview, but upon further investigation, he had been asking for more rent then normal from his occupants and taking the extra money for himself to pay for his son’s cancer treatment, so he wouldn’t kill off his clients. Maya Peto’s sister had no reason to kill her, and all her answers were mournful in nature. Mabel Golden had no motivation, a good life, and she was calm the whole time, proving her innocence. Valentine Orange’s father had a solid alibi, staying over at her stepmother’s for the week. Maggie Falstaff had been asleep in her bed at the time of her daughter’s death, supported by her husband. Jane Sweeney’s private teacher had no motive as she was charging insane amounts of money from her students so she could pay to rent a real studio and not her empty garage, she would want to get the money. Tyrell Bonner trusted his mom with his life and he wouldn’t have killed her because if he did he would’ve lost his. Spencer had no motive and was noticeably afraid and disturbed for the whole interview. Derek spoke to him after the interview.

“Listen, Spencer, we’re putting you and everyone from your ballet group into witness protection. Unfortunately, there might not be enough places in the state for all of you to stay in, so would you rather stay here for a couple of nights or go out of state? We can get someone to get you some clothes and other necessities from your apartment, if you’d like.”

“Uh, I think I should stay here, thank you, Agent Morgan. Should I make a list or?”

“Yeah, go ahead, I’m sure we can set up a place for you to sleep in an empty office.” Derek left the room and caught up with Rossi.

“So, interesting kid, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s almost like he knows the case more than us.”

“You know, I was reading up on the qualifications for this theatre company,” Rossi said, “They’re insane! You have to take dance for ten years beforehand, and you have to be within a certain height and weight, that kid must be crazy talented. And for the office workers, they run background checks on not only them, but their parents too.”

“Well damn, I’m glad I’m not a dancer,” Derek laughed, “I’m gonna go eat dinner in Penelope’s office, do you mind getting Spencer’s list for me?”

“No problem!” Rossi yelled as he turned towards his office.

Derek knocked on Penelope’s door before he walked in.

“Hey there, Penelope. You bring your famous broccoli cheddar soup for dinner?”

“Of course I did, Derek, I know how much you love it,” She rolled her chair away from her desk towards her mini fridge, “You know, I was looking at Spencer Reid’s online activity, and he seems so incredibly sweet. He really only uses facebook to keep up with his mother and the people on his dance team. His mother has schizophrenia and has been in a facility in Las Vegas since right before he moved over here. I can’t imagine how sad and scared he must be right now. Camille was the only person he really talked to. I-”

“Um, hi,” Spencer stood in the doorway to Penelope’s office, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. Agent Rossi took my list of stuff and I asked him where I could find Agent Morgan, and he directed me to Agent Garcia’s office, I’m assuming that’s you?”

“Yes, yes, hi, I’m so sorry,” Penelope got up from her chair and walked up to him, shaking one of their hands with both of hers, “I really am, I’m the tech analyst here, so I’m supposed to know everything about you and your life- Once again I am so so sorry.”

“It’s uh, it’s completely fine, good to meet you.” Spencer took his hand out of Penelope’s and gave an awkward smile.

“Hey, Spencer, we have to work late and Penelope brought her specialty broccoli cheddar soup, would you want to stay here and eat with us? Maybe tell us a little more about yourself?” Derek said as Penelope pulled the tupperware bowl out of the microwave and separated it between three bowls.

“Sure, I’d like to.” Spencer sat down and accepted his bowl of soup.

“So, Spencer,” Penelope spoke as Spencer took a bite, “What’s your favorite food, favorite flower, basically anything facebook couldn’t tell me?”

“Well, considering this is probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten, this is my favorite food, and my favorite flower, that’s a tough one, especially considering that there are 369,000 species.”

“Wow, well, thank you for the compliment. Do you have to be on a certain diet to keep your weight the same? The rules for the Next Star Theatre Company seem really strict.” Penelope asked.

“No, not really. I’ve always been thin, I guess I have a high metabolism. Camille and I, we, we uh, we used to go to each other’s apartments and we would try a new recipe every month. That was our thing,” Spencer began to tear up and stood, rubbing his eyes. “Um, Agent Morgan, can you show me where the bathroom is?”

“Yeah, yeah sure, come here.” Penelope repeated apologies as Derek led Spencer to the bathroom.

Spencer splashed cold water on his face and leaned against the counter, taking deep breaths as tears continued to escape his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I just- god, I found her like that today. Camille died last night. She’s been one of the only people in my life for so long, I don’t know how I’m gonna continue without her. I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to put this on you. Maybe if I had just asked her to sleep over like I had planned. I don’t know, I’m so sorry.”

“No, spencer, it’s fine. I, uh, I lost my dad, a while ago. I know how you feel. I spent almost all of my time with him,” Derek paused and put a hand on Spencer’s shoulder. “Look, you can’t blame yourself for this. I did for so long and it got me nowhere. It won’t do you any good either.”

“Okay, okay, thank you, thanks, Morgan.” Spencer ran his hands through his hair and took a final deep breath.

“Anytime, Spencer. Let’s go finish dinner, huh?”

Spencer nodded and followed Derek back to Penelope’s office, where she was frantically gathering her things.

“Hey! Hey, hi, I just remembered that I have a guitar lesson, in fifteen minutes, so I have to go. I put coverings on your bowls so it, you know, keeps the moisture in. You can just wash them in the sink in the bathroom and put them back in my mini fridge, I’ll pick them up tomorrow, good bye!”

“Well, okay then, let’s finish dinner and then I’ll show you around. You okay with that, Spencer?”

“Yeah, it sounds perfect.”

The two uncovered their bowls and finished eating. Derek showed him around the whole building, and when he was done he took him back to the hallway outside of the bullpen and let him pick an empty office. Derek retrieved a couple of blankets and pillows from under Penelope’s desk. They talked for hours in the vacant room, sharing their entire life stories. Eventually, there was a knock at the door, an agent with Spencer’s clothing and items from his apartment, and they said their goodbyes for the night.


End file.
